Latvia in the News Latvija latviskiLatvians and Lithuanians have another thing in common. Very often in Latvia – and in Lithuania, too, according to my Lithuanian friends – people have a tendency to gripe.
Latvian President Valdis Zatlers on February 16, 2008, during his visit to Vilnius, celebrating Lithuania’s independence day.
RIGA – Created by the former head of the Latvian central bank Einars Repse, the New Era party suffered from a deathly blow.
Recently, MPs from the New Era party along with leaders in different municipalities announced they would quit their membership in the party.
Except for a short period late 2004, the New Era has been in the opposition to the current four-party ruling coalition since Repse stepped down as the country’s prime minister in 2004.
As an opposition party, it has been widely populist and ineffective. And populist ideas came at a cost.
The 17-year-old modern Latvian parliamentary democracy draws on one major flaw – it is void of a strong potent opposition. Generally, the Left in the context of the Latvian political spectrum refers to the so-called Russian parties. Saskanas Centrs and PCTVL usurped the leftist name tag, even though they’re not of the Left ideology.
Two core issues have divided the public and consequently the political spectrum in Latvia – the language and citizenship. The pseudo-left parties adhere to a Russian-centric agenda: easing naturalization requirements for non-citizens, for example. While the right parties adhere mostly to ethnocentrism of ethnic Latvians.
However, in recent months, the political spectrum and public’s concerns have been shifting, resulting in the outpour of support for the anti-corruption czar, Aleksejs Loskutovs.
When Saskanas Centrs and Jaunais Laiks joined forces, it was a sign of change that ultimately brought down Jaunais Laiks and, in a way, resurrected Latvian Social Democrats, LSDSP, who are not in the Parliament.
When Saskanas Centrs took part in the protest against the corruption, or what I had mistakenly called the Subdued Revolution, it smelled of change much larger than people’s disdain for political elite – it smelled of the greater change on the political spectrum.
As a result, we can no longer call pro-Russian parties as the political Left. Citizenship issues took the back seat to the issues of economics, corruption, – all of which cross the Great Ethnic Divide, making an appropriate political climate for the true Left to emerge.
And the time is ripe for it. Latvians, who are notoriously pessimistic, have been even more so when it comes to political life. They’re ready for change in the ruling elite; they’re ready for alternative.
RIGA – I couldn’t have made this up even if I tried.
Judging by the day’s news, today ought to be declared an idiot’s day in Latvia. Especially for those who work in the government and in advertising.
On Friday, the state police launched a *criminal* investigation over the allegations of distributing child pornography by the Latvian National Opera. The poster featuring a naked boy marching nakedly onward in his nekkid fashion advertised the upcoming opera for children “Puppet’s Opera.” (The photo taken from the Telegraf newspaper’s Web site) The boy is Pinocchio, who, according to the creator of the ad, came into this world naked and remained innocent. Unlike us, those who wear clothes.
He remained innocent until foreign tourists – most likely dressed as well – didn’t see a picture of him in a newspaper on a plane. They immediately called the Latvian authorities, which is how this case came about at the end of last week.
The creators of the ad, of course, say that following the logic a half of the artifacts in museums ought to be banned, reminding me of the U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who, during his tenure, covered up the unholy breasts of the blind justice lady.
It would have been okay, if this was the end. However, this afternoon, an inspector of the state police paid a visit to the online news portal Delfi and requested that the illustration, which I placed on this site, be taken down. The news portal complied. Unfortunately.
The other reason why today’s the Idiot’s Day came from the annals of the language police, which fined the supermarket Spice (pronounced – Spi-tsee) for sloppily throwing out some vowels in its advertising, making the beautiful overly-protected Latvian language suffer.
The billboards, pictured here from Leta news agency, have an asterisk, which deciphers what the message is. It says, “Ziemas Kolekcijas Izpardosana.” Or the Sale of the Winter Collection, in English. In the smaller and visible font, it says, “The same way, we also lowered (samazinajam, in Latvian, which can also mean “to make smaller, or shorter”) our prices.” It’s a clever pun, really – shorter text and smaller prices.
Speaking to the news agency Leta, the state language police boss couldn’t understand the advertising agency’s decision to create this billboard. He once again reminded everyone that “in Latvia, one cannot show text in non-understandable and mutilated state language.”
So, let’s put on the creative caps and think of the advertising campaign within the silly limits of the state law. After all, this isn‘t the first time creative minds have had a run-in with the Latvian authorities.
Last year, the Latvian National Orchestra was threatened with an administrative fine over the use of an archaic long letter O with a diacritic on its advertising.
The next thing you’ll know, they’ll be speaking English.
Recent Comments